I love this time of year! This marks my 60-day anniversary here in Page and as publisher of the Lake Powell Chronicle. Let me first of all say I have met some great people and have been taken aback by the overall kindness that I have been shown. I just want to say thank you to those I have had the opportunity to meet and to those that I will connect with as the days move forward.

I have to admit this is my favorite time of year and as a sports connoisseur who also happens to have a master’s in sports management, aka, “my love of sports degree,” I absolutely get so excited for spring.

We have March Madness finishing up, major league baseball starting, NBA getting ready for the playoffs, the Masters Tournament in golf, and of course our kiddos beginning their summer baseball season.

Being a father to four and a stepdad to four more, I have spent many hours at the ballpark. I have coached, umpired, run concession stands, worked on fields and have done lots of scorekeeping. Needless to say, I was quite active every summer.

Let me give you a little history on my background. Growing up I played every sport and as a chubby little lefty I decided that baseball was the sport where I had the greatest odds of being the most decent at.

Back then a lefty had really two choices of positions and that was to be a pitcher or play first base.

So, I learned both and at times played fairly well. I had a chance to play for a state championship team and was the winning pitcher in the semifinal game the year we won state.

It is safe to say I have a competitive nature about me. I mention this because when I grew up and finished college, I had the incredible opportunity to work as a program director at two different YMCA locations, where the youth sports programs are more about fun, learning, and less about competition.  

The problem is anytime you play in an organized game, whether it is baseball, basketball, volleyball, or flag football, and you keep score, it automatically becomes competitive because at the end of the game you will have a winner and a loser.

So, I learned really quick about mellowing out and letting the kids have a good time. I mention this because I do understand that sports can be competitive and we parents need to realize that playing any type of game can have a huge impact on the future development of our children emotionally, physically and socially.

So please, as you sit there this summer watching your kiddos play remember that this isn’t the major leagues and the umpires are not professional umpires. Let your little ball player enjoy these times and have great memories of going to the park to play a couple of times a week during the spring. They are going to make errors and their team might even lose a few games, but it is OK! Let’s make sure as a community that we support all of our coaches, umpires, groundskeepers, recreation leaders, and of course our players.

Let’s have a wonderful season!